On December 14, 2017, the Steering Committee conducted an all-day meeting and invited a large number of guest participants: students, parents, members of the Board of Directors, faculty members and staff from the Business Office.

In the morning, after a short presentation by the Communications Director Beate Mahious and a vote on the new Steering Committee logo (see left), the following areas of the Steering Committee’s duties were discussed in small groups:

1. Starting a project group
2. Overseeing the project group’s work (“controlling”)
3. Closing a project group
4. Promoting the Steering Committee
5. Evaluation of the survey results 2016 on the topic area “Career and College Counseling”
6. Evaluation of the survey results 2016 on topic area “Communication between Teachers and Parents”

At noon, two presentations were held. The first was by Marlen Ascensio, coordinator of Knowledge Management at the Elementary School, who gave us very interesting insights into the excellent organization of essential Elementary School documents on the GISW One-Drive. The entire Elementary School faculty has access to folders with relevant documents sorted by topics, i.e. planning, advertising, and executing the lantern walk.

The second presentation was by Andrea Meuschke, coordinator of transition management, who explained her special focus on the orientation of new teachers that are sent to our school from the German government, the so-called Auslandsschul-Lehrkraft (ADLK). Ms. Meuschke supports these new teachers and helps them get settled in the U.S. and at our school.

In the afternoon, all participants were assigned into new groupings to work on SMART-goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, Timely/Timebound) for the following topics:

1. Knowledge Management / Transition Management
2. Responsibilities /Transparence/Processes – Who does what? Who reports to whom?
3. Communication between Teachers/Parents/Students – Communications Guide
4. FuF, which are individually-oriented instructional units that focus on extra coaching to improving language skills (German and English) and on challenging our gifted students  – should this also be offered in grades 10-12 and in the Realschule? 
5. School Spirit – How content are all community members with the school?
6. Exchange Program / Concept for Overnight Class Trips
7. School Program
8. Sports/Theatre/Music-Concepts
9. Alumni Club and Network

The members of the extended Steering Committee are: